A Universe of Light

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at 7:00pm
to 8:00pm

A free public lecture by Chris Sorensen, PhD, Department of Physics and Chemistry, Kansas State University.

"We live in a universe of light! All the non-luminous objects we see, including this printed page and the faces of our friends, we see through the process of light scattering. In this talk we will discuss what light is and some of its important properties such as color and polarization. Then we will explore simple ways to understand light scattering and how scattering affects its properties. Questions we will pursue include what is polarized light and how is polarization affected by scattering? Why is the sky blue, sunsets red and clouds white? What is the explanation of rainbows, glories and sundogs? My goal is to both enhance our physical intuition for the light scattering process and to awaken us all to the universe of light around us."